Project Hail Mary

I’ll be honest - sometimes we choose a trailer to blog about just for its use of a hit song that the Trailaurality bloggers–Curtis Perry and I–love from our childhoods. And that’s the primary justification this week for revisiting Project Hail Mary (yes, we did already blog about its first Official Trailer, back in July). But you have to do that sometimes (this year we also blogged about _Wicked For Good _trailers 1 and 2, because…obviously).

So this week we’ll explore how Oasis’s 1996 classic “Champagne Supernova” is helping this new Lord-Miller (of Spider-Verse fame) film Project Hail Mary pivot its branding from the comedic vibe of its first trailer, to something closer to the awestruck vastness of Interstellar.

Project Hail Mary’s second official trailer (released November 18) opens with a single droning low pitch, accompanying the vast darkness of outer space, and a close-up shot of astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) tapping on a thick window. At 0:10 we see the hand of Grace’s travelling companion, an alien named “Rocky.” At 0:17, as Rocky shows Grace a little sculpture through the window, upper register sustained orchestral strings enter, lending the ominous low drone a hopeful tinge by forming a major chord.

Then at 0:24, we’re looking at an overhead shot of a convoy of black cars driving through the countryside, and we hear the unmistakable voice of Liam Gallagher. Now this is a trailerized remix of the original song (“Champagne Supernova”), so we have the lead vocal track but no guitars. The singing pauses after the first phrase of the lyrics (“How many special people change?”). At 0:28 the students in Grace’s middle school classroom are pounding their desks, and it’s synched roughly with the tempo of the song.

The song’s second lyric is heard as we see an aerial shot of an aircraft carrier (at 0:35). For the next little while, the music stays uber-minimalist with not much besides the low drone and an occasional high register piano note. But at 1:12 we get the electric guitar intro of “Champagne Supernova” as we hear Grace first introducing himself to Rocky. We hear some vocalizing from Rocky a few times in the trailer, including at 1:35, and it’s surprisingly high pitched for such a large rock-like being. Perhaps we should ask, if the creature’s body is made out of rocks, how does it have a wet resonant tone to its voice? I expect it will all make sense when the computer graphics are complete and we can get a good look at Rocky.

From 1:35 there’s an exciting musical build to accompany a montage showing Grace blasting off in the rocket. Accompanied by accents on big drums, Liam Gallagher’s vocals finally return here with a pickup to the chorus of “Champagne Supernova”. At 2:11 we finally hear the words “champagne supernova in the sky,” timed to a shot of Grace running along the outside of his space ship, with the vastness of space behind him. This is some impressive synergy of words and visuals!

But the trailer editors aren’t done yet with the lyrical-visual tie-ins. Wait until 2:22, when the lyric “champagne supernova” returns and now we see a room full of people raising their drinks to toast something or someone off-screen. The trailer is nearly done now and it’s into its final climactic montage, in which I particularly like the shot of Grace at 2:28 covering his ears and shouting, with his mouth opening in time with one of Gallagher’s “na, na, na” lyrics from the song’s bridge. This is followed by the obligatory turn phrase (for both human and alien), which reminds us that we are ultimately screening a comedy.

It isn’t a particularly innovative trailer, musically. It’s minimalist, it’s effective. But I think the use of this Oasis track really aligns with the right tone for Gosling’s grungy, slightly hopeless, give-it-my-best-shot approach to this character’s epic predicament.

If Ryan Gosling and the Lord-Miller team weren’t enough to convince you to buy your ticket to see Project Hail Mary, then come on, these high profile music tracks they’re using in the trailers (Harry Styles in trailer 1, Oasis in trailer 2), are certainly helping to get our attention. It’s in theatres March 20, 2026.

— Jack Hui Litster